Sovereignty of God

 Genesis 1:1 gives a great start for understanding God’s sovereignty.  There is no question by any side that God is the creator of all things.  The discussion deals with what defines sovereignty.  At this point most define sovereignty, and then they find verses to back the definition.  In order to not just repeat a person but turn understanding to Scriptures and to the teaching of the Holy Spirit, straight presentation of Scripture will be used.   Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” The next set of verses gives the account of God’s creation.  Seven literal days; six of putting all creation in place and one day of rest are recorded.  The Scriptures address this act in many places. Isaiah 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: Isaiah 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. Colossians 1:15-17 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:   And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Revelation 10:6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:   ⁷But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Psalm 102:25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. Psalm 104:5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Isaiah 48:13 Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. Isaiah 51:13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? Jeremiah 31:37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Hebrews 1:10
And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.  God the Trinity is clearly the creator of all “visible and invisible” Anything that is not God is a creation of God. Thus God is beyond all created things.

The following  illustrations are to try to help understand the teachings we are dealing with.  Calvinism, Arminiansim and a Biblical view point of salvation is illustrated taking the basic tenants of the teachings.  I developed these illustrations to help myself put it in front of me as a helpful picture of these teachings.  I illustrate  this by using a time line; the statements made by those who hold to Calvinism and Arminianism.  I use their statements to define sovereignty, foreknowledge and salvation.  I also take Bible verses at face value and with a literal interpretation to define God’s true definition of sovereignty.  I hope this helps you see what the Bible truly teaches.  

 

The issue at hand is based upon the Scriptures whether or not God stands with only knowledge of the future because He has decreed it or does God have knowledge of the future because He can see down through time and knows what will happen in the future, or does God know the future because He, being not limited by time, stands in the present of His nature and exists standing not only at the beginning of time but stands presently at the end of forever.  Calvinist teaching states that by God’s decree for His creation makes the future sure therefore all things must be controlled by God.

Louis Berkhof; “The decree of God is His eternal plan or purpose, in which He has foreordained all things that come to pass” (Manual of Christian Doctrine, Wm Beeerdmans Publishing Company p 84 1933    Dabney; “God’s foreknowledge is founded on His foreordination.”  Hodge; “Foreknowledge is equivalent to foreordination, God possessing infinite foreknowledge and power existed along from eternity; and in time, self prompted, began to create in an absolute vacuum. Whatever limiting causes or conditions afterwards exist was first intentionally brought into being by him, with perfect foreknowledge of their nature, relations and results.  If God then foreseeing that if he created a certain free agent and placed him in certain relations he would freely act in a certain way, and yet with that knowledge proceeded to create that very free agent and put him in precisely those positions, God would in so doing obviously predetermine the certain futurition of the act foreseen.  God can never in his work be reduced to a choice of evils, because the entire system, and each particular end and cause and condition was clearly foreseen and by deliberate choice admitted by him.”

            Decrees of God as they are called simply, at the least, that God at a time before creation, set into place all things by preordination or foreordaining.  This implies that God first at a point in time ordained all of time for mankind.  Though God knows all future events because he ordained it to be so God along with us are traveling through time.   We will address how wrong this is and must be when addressing God’s nature and character.   Armenian doctrine teaches that man’s will allows for fluctuations in future events based upon the will of man and the will of God.  Both doctrines teach that God is traveling in some structure of time.  Defining Time in light of this subject is crucial.  Time has been defined as events moving or changing in relationship to itself.  Time has been defined as a change of thought or location of any object or person.  Time has been defined as movement through space in relationship to the closest star being in orbit around such star.  Time then is either movement within something or a change in location or thought or ideas.  It involves being somewhere at a moment then somewhere else at the next.  We will see that God is everywhere and need not change nor move.  The Scripture is clear the God changes not. Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.  The Scriptures are clear that since time is one of God’s creations, He then being transcendent of His creation can never be dictated to by time.  God knows all things because it is His nature; He sees all things because He abides outside of His creation.  Those who hold to the Calvinistic doctrine tend to make statements claiming their strong belief in the Sovereignty of God, and that those who do not hold to their teaching limit God.  The belief that God is functioning inside of some realm of time is very limiting.  Time: a creation of God to place all living things outside of Himself in to exist.  God’s special creation of man which includes an eternal spirit must by being created by God always exist in time.  The first man Adam was created at a point in time, from that time forward Adam will never cease to exist, therefore the eternal existence of Adam began that day.  All mankind was created with an eternal soul that will live forever either in heaven or the lake of fire.  (verses needed)  There will be no end for either.  There have been those who have stated that time will end and eternity begins, but the Scriptures are clear that time does not stop.  Notice in Revelation 22:2,  “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”  where in the New Heaven and the New Jerusalem that the Tree of life will bear fruit each month.  Time does not stop. Created beings by nature must live in time.  Anything outside of time is God. Therefore, the Bold Statement: is that God is greater, bigger, and beyond forever.  Since God is greater than forever it is not hard to understand that God knows all things and in no way has to dictate events to assure an outcome.  God exist at the end of time in a present state just as much as he does at the beginning of time.  “I am the same yesterday today and forever:”  “I am the Lord I change not.” God does not travel through time. God does not see down through time, God sees all time at one time. 

When we understand that God is Sovereign because that is who He is.  He is not Sovereign because He did some thing in the past or Sovereign because He knows about the future.  In the next blog I will show that Salvation in not a work of man neither it is a dictate of God.